Home Living — Ideas, (With Video)

 

Victoria Magazine

April 1989

Please be sure to check in regularly to my Pinterest

We are enduring the times as best we can! (ala Jane Austen)

 

Thank you to those who urge me to continue blogging and vlogging!!

A lady from church gave me this beautiful crochet bouquet and I want to show how it is made:

I use the excellent theme Coloring books for drawing ideas, home inspiration and what early home educators called “ delight learning.” The ones you see here are from Dover Publications.

The line drawings from Simple Pleasures and Cozy Corners coloring books show art and beauty in small things in daily life that are sometimes not noticed:

In the video I read from this Eric Sloane book about courtesy, which is a Biblical term meaning “ care and concern for others.”

I showed a picture of my great grandparents of Vera, Texas. 

(Dates and names to be added soon)

This is the picture on the wall in my video. I referred to it when I was discussing poses and art. It is a print on canvas , and the artist is Barbara Mock. I’m sorry— I don’t know the title of the painting. 

It was no doubt inspired by this Victorian painting called “Reading by the Window-1880,  by Charles James Lewis (London. England 1830-1892)

Please enjoy your home while you listen, and comment if you can.

Lydia Ruth

For those of you who have asked about the subject of difficult people  I have gleaned a few bits of knowledge from Jefferson Fisher that were helpful.  There is also someone who approaches this from a Biblical viewpoint, a lady named Kris Reece. Check out their video lists and see what you can glean.  

Living the Best Life From Home (with video)

Greetings precious home dwellers and those who strive to be. 

Before you hear the homemaker's edifying talk on the video at the end of the page, here are a few images from The Manse:

Of course you all have seen my personal Pemberley reflection. Each year when the rain season gives me a lake, I get a humorous delight in taking this picture.

(Above: the real Pemberley from the 1995 movie "Pride and Prejudice") 

Today in the video I shared these new coloring books which I use for art ideas,

and showed you the sketch for the newsletter I made for someone:

I spoke of a letter Jane had written to Cassandra, thanking her for the invitation to visit, but explaining. "...You see, I never go out,"  which seems very appealing to me sometimes.

In the Eric Sloane history book I read about the reasons our great grandparents  attended worship being much different than today.  They attended because they were grateful and they enjoying the discipling (teaching) . Even if they could not read well, they wanted to hear the Word being taught.

Today's scene from my front porch:

Other things in this video:

Wake up with gratefulness for something.

Appreciating hot water.

Humming, rocking, walking.

Skin care (sunscreen?)

Approaching homemaking with a good attitude

Shopping for bargains as an interest and a service to the family

Tiny houses for old folks--do we need to go smaller or larger?

"Narcissism" in the home--its nothing new: its the same old thing mentioned in the Bible and in many old books with "characters."

Much more.

I base a lot of my content on your suggestions. I appreciate any ideas you have for subjects to speak about.

Please enjoy your home while you listen:

Floral Artist Catherina Klein (German 1861-1929)

 

The new header has a painting by Catherina Klein. 

Doing a search for this art reveals much more beauty. I especially like the pictures with the little country scenes in the distance, which postcards of the era featured. Catherina may have painted over a thousand pictures. 

Currently Creating New Title Section

(Title of this 1800’s painting not found yet)

 As you can see, I am working on the Blog title area. There are some things to straighten out still, but I will be finishing it. All will be well. 

Lydia Ruth

Hope to Talk to You Soon!

Greetings, Ladies,

I have missed talking to you but never sure if the world really needs to hear me nattering on about sewing and art and home-schooling your wonderful selves.

Many people today think homemaking is a lazy escape for "going to work" outside the home, but if you have a sense of duty and a conscience of good stewardship, staying home is a big job.  It follows the scripture to women to be "keepers and workers at home." The same passage in Titus 2 also says "that the Word of God be not discredited."

I have found out more and more that there are other full grown ladies, grandmothers, even, who love to create their school year with things they are interested in learning, reading, creating, and that they even buy themselves deluxe quality crayons for unique coloring books and art projects.  Self schooling is one of the subjects I want to cover in my upcoming video. Such a noble endeavor makes them feel youthful, vibrant and purposeful.  God is good and he has a future and a hope for all of us, young or old.

Also, I have been discovering more about the author, Jane Austen. She was truly one of us, at home, dealing with family and friends and all the world's crazy rules. She was also a very devoted, spiritual person who read the scriptures.  I hope to tell you more about this in future talks. 

In many ways, we ladies at home (and those who want to be) are like the ancient shepherds who laid down their time and lives for their sheep. I will talk about getting "sheeped" and how important health and sleep is for all that needs to be guarded and guided. This also, will be one of my topics of discussion.

The problem with letting so much time go by between posts and videos is that my pile of notes gets larger, stashed into a bag, and must be sorted out. Also my home duties, even at a "vital" age, have increased!!  

Please continue to pray for me to sit still long enough to give you one of my proper talks and straighten out the world. 

Some of you have been promised mail from me, and I have a pile of things to send out.  I thank those of you who thoughtfully sent me Christmas cards. I still have them and hope to get back to you.  

Someone did an online search for me and since I am not on any social media outside of my phone and texts, discovered there are many other Lydia Shermans, some who were very unappealing characters. That is why I use my first and second name now, online  Even in the small town nearby, there are a couple more of me!  

I had discussed with you about the dismissal of middle names in our culture. We used to be known by double names such as Jenny Lynn, Sandra Kathy, Carol Ann, Joy Dawn, and so forth.  Boys also had wonderful double names that were dropped by the social dominants of our time. That is one reason I am bringing back the double name, even if only for myself 

Lydia Ruth

 

Comments and Questions About Home Life (With Video)

Hello Dear Ones,

All is well here and I hope all is well with you. If not, maybe you'll feel better about everything after listening to this current video. I answered a few things on my list of subjects suggested by viewers.

Picture below: I recently learned about the benefits of this tea:

You may recall years ago when I made some fake cakes with silk flower petals. This year, for the child play kitchen. I made this fake cake using stickers from the dollar store. I explained more about it in the video. I sometimes scent them with a bit of vanilla.

There is an interest amongst grown-ups to create their own homeschool curriculum and homeschool themselves.  I suggested several books, but a curriculum could also include craft kits and other kinds of activities. Sometimes the Victoria magazines have articles about ancient architecture and countries of the world, that could be used as extra interest in home school.

Coloring books from Dover Books have lovely art and all kinds of themes including, farms, houses, scenery, and more. Although this is a coloring book, I got this one to use as a drawing book for future art themes. 

The recent Victoria magazine and 

an original book about the home by Emily Barnes, of whom I always say, "Her works live on after her." 

Eric Sloane books have good drawings and descriptions of how things work.

I like the Lamplighter books, and you can see some of them stacked in the background of this photo:

An antique vase of dollar store flowers placed on one of Grandma's handwork lace pieces. 

 I took a picture of this old barn through the fog.

Thank you for coming, and I hope this video is edifying and that you use the video to listen while you get a few things done at home.

See You Soon

Thank you all for your prayers for me to get time enough to come here more often and especially to supply you with original video messages. Thanks also to those kind ladies who send me emails with suggestions. That is a great help and I'll be addressing some of those subjects

And, keep in mind, this blog and video channel is not any kind of standard for any particular church or group, but simply my experience and observations being handed down to my descendants, and shared with you also. You all have different and varying lives with unexpected issues, but we can still be friends, like I always say.

Here are a few pictures from my Pinterest account . When you do not see any current posts, just go over there and look around at everything I save. Sometimes it can be creative to the homemaker.

You might enjoy THIS site:

Please note that not all links I post will not be completely agreeable to everyone. Just ignore the ones you don't like and take a look at what is most edifying to you.

These pictures are only for ideas and uplift and inspiration. Enjoy what you like, but forget what you don't 

Clip art: I like the way flowers were delivered in these long boxes:

You might enjoy having a daily scripture reading like this (or maybe you could write one yourself)

I have not read it but liked the cover and the idea.

Another idea filled course here:

More inspiring clip art below. What a beautiful pose for anyone; calm repose in a crazy world.

Painting by Alexander Averin:  

Lydia Ruth

Please do not hesitate to leave speaking topics for me on comments.  I do have a list that I am working on and will try and get to what you have already suggested.

Thank you again for your Christmas cards and I will try to honor them this year with a note.

I will try to do a video soon!!!!